Pizzonia takes the wheel at Spa Francorchamps

Today the BMW Williams F1 Teams has confirmed that Antonio Pizzonia will take the wheel at the Belgian Grand Prix at the circuit of Spa-Francorchamps this weekend. Pizzonia takes the place of German Nick Heidfeld, who is still recovering from his crash during the week of testing at Monza.

Antonia Pizzonia, the team's long-term test driver, stepped into Heidfeld's car last weekend at Monza, after medical experts declared him unfit after Friday practice at the Italian GP following a testing accident on August 26.
Because of the intense schedule of back-to-back races, the team decided to allow Heidfeld more time to fully recuperate. The team will avoid the need to make fitness assessmentes and driver nominations on the Friday of the Belgian Grand Prix, wich would otherwise handicap the team by requiring Pizzonia to run first in the Belgian qualifying session.

Frank Williams “Our first priority is prudence in relation to Nick’s condition. Although the broad view is that he may well be ready to race by Friday, the back-to-back calendar at this time does not allow the luxury of more time to reach this conclusion, so it is best both for Nick, and indeed the team if we make a clear and early decision that Antonio will race this weekend. In addition to allowing Nick more time to recover, we can nominate Antonio now and he can benefit on Saturday in Belgium with a good starting position for qualifying from the strong seventh place finish he secured in Monza.”